Alliteration

Alliteration is a phonetic stylistic device which aims at imparting a melodic effect to the utterance. The essence of this device lies in the repetition of similar sounds, in particular consonant sounds, in close succession, particularly at the beginning of successive words: " The possessive instinct never stands still (J. Galsworthy) or, "Deep into the darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before" (E. A. Poe).

Alliteration, like most phonetic expressive means, does not bear any lexical or other meaning unless we agree that a sound meaning exists as such. But even so we may not be able to specify clearly the character of this meaning, and the term will merely suggest that a certain amount of information is contained in the repetition of sounds, as is the case with the repetition of lexical units.

Phonetic expressive means and stylistic devices (euphony, rhyme, rhythm).

A phoneme has a strong associative and sound-instrumenting power. Due to its articulatory and acoustic properties certain ideas, feelings, images are awaken. It’s vivid in poetry. Euphony: produced by alliteration or assonance. Sense of ease and comfort in producing or hearing. ▲ Favors unused are favors abused. Euphony is created by the assonance of the vowels [ei, u:] and alliteration [zd] frequent in proverbs. Rhyme: repetition of identical or similar terminal sounds or sound combinations in words. ▲ One, two, three, four, five. I caught a fish alive. Assonance of vowel [ai]. Rhythm: complex unit defined as a regular recurrence of stressed and unstressed syllables (strong and weak elements) which determine the meter in poetry or the measured flow of words in prose.

▲ One, two, three, four. Mary at the cottage door.

Rhyme

Rhyme is the repetition of identical or similar terminal sound combination of words. Rhyming words are generally placed at a regular distance from each other. In verse they are usually placed at the end of the corresponding lines.

Identity and similarity of sound combinations may be relative. For instance, we distinguish between full rhymes and incomplete rhymes. The full rhyme presupposes identity of the vowel sound and the following consonant sounds in a stressed syllable, including the initial consonant of the second syllable (in polysyllabic words), we have exact or identical rhymes.

Incomplete rhymes present a greater variety They can be divided into two main groups: vowel rhymes and consonant rhymes. In vowel-rhymes the vowels of the syllables in corresponding words are identical, but the consonants may be different as in flesh - fresh -press. Consonant rhymes, on the contrary, show concordance in consonants and disparity in vowels, as in worth - forth, tale - tool -treble - trouble; flung - long.

Modifications in rhyming sometimes go so far as to make one word rhyme with a combination of words; or two or even three words rhyme with a corresponding two or three words, as in "upon her honour - won her", "bottom –forgot them- shot him". Such rhymes are called compound or broken. The peculiarity of rhymes of this type is that the combination of words is made to sound like one word - a device which inevitably gives a colloquial and sometimes a humorous touch to the utterance. Compound rhyme may be set against what is called eye - rhyme, where the letters and not the sounds are identical, as in love - prove, flood - brood, have - grave. It follows that compound rhyme is perceived in reading aloud, eye - rhyme can only be perceived in the written verse.

Rhythm

Rhythm exists in all spheres of human activity and assumes multifarious forms. It is a mighty weapon in stirring up emotions whatever its nature or origin, whether it is musical, mechanical or symmetrical as in architecture. The most general definition of rhythm may be expressed as follows: "rhythm is a flow, movement, procedure, etc. characterized by basically regular recurrence of elements or features, as beat, or accent, in alternation with opposite or different elements of features" (Webster's New World Dictionary).

Rhythm can be perceived only provided that there is some kind of experience in catching the opposite elements or features in their correlation, and, what is of paramount importance, experience in catching regularity of alternating patterns. Rhythm is a periodicity, which requires specification as to the type of periodicity. Inverse rhythm is regular succession of weak and strong stress. A rhythm in language necessarily demands oppositions that alternate: long, short; stressed, unstressed; high, low and other contrasting segments of speech.

Academician V.M. Zhirmunsky suggests that the concept of rhythm should be distinguished from that of a metre. Metre is any form of periodicity in verse, its kind being determined by the character and number of syllables of which it consists. The metre is a strict regularity, consistency and unchangeability. Rhythm is flexible and sometimes an effort is required to perceive it. In classical verse it is perceived at the background of the metre. In accented verse - by the number of stresses in a line. In prose - by the alternation of similar syntactical patterns. Rhythm in verse as a S. D. is defined as a combination of the ideal metrical scheme and the variations of it, variations which are governed by the standard. There are the following rhythmic patterns of verse:

iambus

dactul

umphibrach

anapaest.

Rhythm is not a mere addition to verse or emotive prose, which also has its rhythm. Rhythm intensifies the emotions. It contributes to the general sense. Much has been said and writhen about rhythm in prose. Some investigators, in attempting to find rhythmical patterns of prose, superimpose metrical measures on prose. But the parametres of the rhythm in verse and in prose are entirely different.

Graphical expressive means and stylistic devices (graphon, its stylistic function).

Graphical expressive means include the use of punctuation, graphical arrangement of phrases, violation of type and spelling. Graphon: the intentional violation of the generally accepted spelling used to reflect peculiarities of pronunciation or emotional state of the speaker. Types of graphon: multiplication, hyphenation, capitalization, apostrophe. Functions: - to give the reader an idea about smth (level of education, emotional state, origin). – to attract attention. – to make smb memorize it. – to show smth, explain. Graphical means are popular with advertisers. They individualize speech of the character or advertising slogan. ▲ A better stain getter.▲ How do you spell relief? R-O-L-I-P-S – to make reader / listener to remember it.

Repetition (all cases).

Repetition aims at logical emphasis in order to fix the reader’s attention on the key-words of the utterance. There are: 1) Anaphora – when the repeated unit comes at the beginning. ▲ Your cheek, your gluttony, your obstinacy impose respect on me. 2) Epiphora – the repeated units is at the end of a sentence. ▲ To get into the best society one has either to feed people, amuse people. 3) Framing repetition – the initial word is repeated at the end of the unit. ▲ Please don’t tie me down, please. 4) Linking repetition – the last word of one part is repeated at the beginning of the following one. ▲ If you have nothing to say, say it. 5) Chain repetition – a group of linking repetition used in the same utterance. ▲ Now he understood. He understood many things. 6) Synonymic repetition – repetition of the same idea with the help of synonyms. 7) Pleonasm – the use of more words than are necessary. Usually the fault of style. 8) Tautology – repetition of the same statement. Usually in other words the fault of style.

Metaphor (trite, genuine, prolonged), personification.

Metaphor is used to denote the transference of meaning from one word to another, and to designate the process in which a word acquires a derivative meaning. Two phenomena of life are brought to mind by the imposition of some (or all) the properties of one object on the other, deprived of them. Trite (fixed) – predictable, fixed in dictionaries. ▲ legs of the table; winter comes. Genuine: (fresh) unique, unexpectable. ▲ The house was a white elephant but he couldn’t conceive of his father in a smaller place. - describes the size and enigma of the house. Prolonged: if a sentence contains a group of metaphors; consists of principal and contributory images. Metaphors may be prolonged through a group of other lexical stylistic devices. Personification: attribution of personal nature or character to inanimate objects or abstract notions. A thing is presented as a human being. ▲ I’m the Daughter of Earth and Water.

Metonymy (trite, genuine), irony.

Metonymy is based on some kind of association connecting the two concept which the dictionary and contextual meaning represent. Trite (fixed) metonymy represents derivative logical meaning of a word and is fixed in dictionaries. ▲ Nothing comes between me and my Calvins (Calvin Klein Jeans). Contextual m. – unexpected substitution of one word to another. ▲ She married into conversation > very talkative man. Synecdoche – m. based on the relation between the part and the whole. ▲ He had five months to feed. Irony: based on simultaneous relation of primary dictionary and contextual logical meanings of a words which stay in opposition to each other. ▲ It must be delightful to find oneself in a foreign country without a penny in one’s pocket. It isn’t logical but evaluative meaning is foreground. It isn’t humor – not always make humorous effect but negative.

Irony: based on simultaneous relation of primary dictionary and contextual logical meanings of a words which stay in opposition to each other. ▲ It must be delightful to find oneself in a foreign country without a penny in one’s pocket. It isn’t logical but evaluative meaning is foreground. It isn’t humor – not always make humorous effect but negative.

Oxymoron, antonomasia.

Oxymoron is a combination of 2 words in which the meanings of the 2 clash, being opposite in sense. ▲ terribly beautiful. One of the two members of oxymoron illuminates the feature observed while the other one offers a purely subjective individual perception of the object. In it the primary logical meaning of the adj. or adverb is capable of resisting the power of semantic change which words undergo in combination. It can be realized in several models: adj. + noun, adverb + adj. Antonomasia is a stylistic device based on the interplay between the logical and nominal meanings of a word realized simultaneously. It has the purpose of pointing but the leading, most characteristic or important trait of the person or event, inning it as a proper name of this person or event. Antonomasia categorizes the person and indicates both the general and the particular. It gives us information about the bearer of the name. ▲ Mr. Snake. Antonomasia is mostly created by nouns, seldom by attributive combinations or phrases.

Intensification of a certain feature of phenomenon (simile, hyperbole, understatement).

The feature of the object which is picked out seems unimportant and frequently transitory. But for a special reason it’s elevated to the greatest importance and made into a telling feature. Simile: imaginative comparison of two unlike objects which belong to different classes. It excludes all the properties of the compared objects except one which is made common to them. ▲ The girl is like a bird. Trite simile points out the analogy between the human being and the animals which have stereotyped traits of character, states. ▲ As wet as a fish. Hyperbole: is a deliberate overstatement or exaggeration of a feature of a thing or phenomenon. If it is used frequently it may become trite hyperbole. ▲ I’ve told you thousand times! Understatement: when the quality or quantity is underrated. It is deliberate underrating of a feature or property of an object. ▲ Мальчик-с-пальчик. It’s used in Britain in every-day speech as it symbolizes politeness.

Epithets (semantic and structural classification).

Epithet is a stylistic device based on the interplay of emotive and logical meanings in an attributive word, emotionally colored attitude of the speaker to the object he describes. Semantic class: 1) associated with the noun it refers and 2) unassociated with it. 1 – refer the mind to the concept due to some quality of the object it is attached to. ▲ careful attention. 2 – attributes used to characterize the object by adding a feature unexpected in it. ▲ heart-burning smile. Structurally:

Composition

1) simple 2) compound 3) phrase 4) sentence

ordinary adj. are built like is shown is shown by

▲rosy dreams. comp. adj. by phrase. sentence.

▲blue eyed girl ▲ The cat had don’t-

-you-touch-me-or-I’ll-kill

-you expression of his face.

Another structural variety of epithet is called reversed – two nouns liked in an of-phrase. The evaluating, emotional element is in the noun described. ▲ A doll of the baby.

Transferred use of structural meaning (rhetorical question, litotes).

Every syntactical structure has a definite function, which is also called its structural meaning. Sometimes syntactical structures are used in meanings which differ from their usual ones. In this case a structure assumes a new meaning which is very much alike a lexical transferred meaning. Rhetorical question may be defined as an utterance in the form of a the question which pronounces judgments and also expresses different kinds of modal shades of meaning (irony, doubt). ▲ And yet, where was the Jane Eyre yesterday? Where was her life? Where were her prospects? Litotes is a stylistic device which consists of a peculiar use of negative construction. It’s negation which includes affirmation. ▲ It is not bad; she is not unkind. The function of it: weaken the effect of the utterance. There is double negative…

Ellipsis, break-in-the narrative.

Ellipsis is deliberate omission of at least one member of the sentence. It is typical in conversation, but in direct intercourse it’s not a stylistic device, but a norm of the spoken language. Ellipsis is the basis of the telegraphic style, which presupposes omission of connectives and redundant words. A kind of ellipsis, a construction in which the subject of one sentence is at the same time the subject of the second, is called apokoinu construction. ▲ Everyone found him attractive. It was his temper let him down. The noun “temper”, being the subject of the first sentence, is also the subject of second one. Break-in-the narrative is a stylistic device based on a sudden breaking off in the midst of a sentence as if from inability for private communication. ▲ – Martin didn’t shoot himself. – Martin didn’t - . – Of course, he didn’t. I shoot him. Expresses the surprise of the character.

Stylistic inversion, detachment.

Inversion is certain changes in the word order of an utterance. It can by grammatical and stylistic. The first one involves the structure of the utterance. It’s a norm in interrogative constructions. ▲ He is leaving for London tomorrow morning. – Is he leaving for London tomorrow? In this example no emphases is added, so it’s a grammatical inversion. Stylistic inversion doesn’t change the structural meaning of an utterance it aims at attaching logical stress or additional emotional coloring to the meaning of the utterance. ▲ In shabby shubra lived another people: to them, and them only he felt related. Detachment is a variety of stylistic inversion. It takes place when some secondary parts of the utterance are placed. So that they seem formally independent of words they logically refer to. ▲ You weren’t-ever-going to get out of this… not ever. Detachment of ever wit…

Enumeration, suspense.

Enumeration is a stylistic device by which separate things are named one by one. So that they produce a chain, the links of which, being syntactically in the same position, are forced to display some kinds of semantic homogeneity. It’s frequently used to depict the scenery through a tourist’s eyes. It units both homogeneous and heterogeneous objects. If the united objects are homogeneous, enumeration is not a stylistic device. Example of simple enumeration: ▲ Kings, emperors, conquerors, pontiffs and all the other idols are swept away sooner or later. Suspense is a compositional stylistic device which consists in arranging the matter of communication in such a way that the less important, descriptive, subordinate parts are amassed at the beginning, and the main idea is withheld till the end of the sentence. ▲ Swinging his cane (which he found to short) in his left hand (which he should have cut off long ago since it was constantly offending him), he began walking slowly down the avenue. Suspense aim at helping the reader in uncertainty and expectation, at creating constant emotional tension.

Parallel constructions, chiasmus.

A parallel construction is the stylistic device which represents identical or similar syntactical structures in two or more sentences or parts of a sentence. Pure parallelism depends on the repetition of syntactical arrangement of the sentence. ▲ He was not comfortable. He was not happy. These 2 sentences have identical structure. Parallel construction may be complete (maintains the principle of identical structures in the corresponding sentence) and partial (based on the repetition of some parts of successive sentences). ▲ I was growing up, he was growing old. Parallelism may carry the role of semantic equality of the parts, emotive, uniting functions. Chiasmus (reversed parallel construction) is a stylistic device based on the repetition of a syntactical pattern but with a cross order of word or phrases. ▲ Better a witty fool than I foolish wit. In this saying chiasmus is realized through different parts of speech with the same roots. It’s a syntactical not lexical stylistic device as…

Repetition (all cases).

Repetition aims at logical emphasis in order to fix the reader’s attention on the key-words of the utterance. There are: 1) Anaphora – when the repeated unit comes at the beginning. ▲ Your cheek, your gluttony, your obstinacy impose respect on me. 2) Epiphora – the repeated units is at the end of a sentence. ▲ To get into the best society one has either to feed people, amuse people. 3) Framing repetition – the initial word is repeated at the end of the unit. ▲ Please don’t tie me down, please. 4) Linking repetition – the last word of one part is repeated at the beginning of the following one. ▲ If you have nothing to say, say it. 5) Chain repetition – a group of linking repetition used in the same utterance. ▲ Now he understood. He understood many things. 6) Synonymic repetition – repetition of the same idea with the help of synonyms. 7) Pleonasm – the use of more words than are necessary. Usually the fault of style. 8) Tautology – repetition of the same statement. Usually in other words the fault of style.

Climax, anticlimax, antithesis.

Climax (gradation) is a stylistic device representing a gradual increase in significance, importance or emotional tension in the utterance. Logical climax – is based on the relative importance of the component parts looked at from the point of view of the concepts embodied in them. ▲ You’re a pig and a beast and a Bolshevik. Logical climax here implies political view of the character. Emotional climax is based on the relative emotional tension produced by words with emotive meaning. Quantitative climax is an evident increase in the volume of the corresponding concepts or simple numerical increase. Anticlimax: is a sudden drop from the different or important in thought or expression to the commonplace or trivial, sometimes for humorous effect. Anticlimax is represented by an unexpected turn of the thought which ends in complete semantic reversal of the emphasized idea. It results in defeated expectancy of the reader. Antithesis: is based on relative opposition which arises out of the context trough the expansion of contrasting pairs. ▲ Every white has its black, and every sweet its …

Intensification of a certain feature of phenomenon (simile, hyperbole, understatement).

The feature of the object which is picked out seems unimportant and frequently transitory. But for a special reason it’s elevated to the greatest importance and made into a telling feature. Simile: imaginative comparison of two unlike objects which belong to different classes. It excludes all the properties of the compared objects except one which is made common to them. ▲ The girl is like a bird. Trite simile points out the analogy between the human being and the animals which have stereotyped traits of character, states. ▲ As wet as a fish. Hyperbole: is a deliberate overstatement or exaggeration of a feature of a thing or phenomenon. If it is used frequently it may become trite hyperbole. ▲ I’ve told you thousand times! Understatement: when the quality or quantity is underrated. It is deliberate underrating of a feature or property of an object. ▲ Мальчик-с-пальчик. It’s used in Britain in every-day speech as it symbolizes politeness.

Intensification of a certain feature of phenomenon (periphrasis, euphemism).

The feature of the object which is picked out seems unimportant and frequently transitory. But for a special reason it’s elevated to the greatest importance and made into a telling feature. Periphrases: is a process which realizes the power of language to coin new names for objects by disclosing some quality of the object. Periphrases is the renaming of an object by a phrase that brings out some particular feature of this object. ▲ The ship of the desert – camel. Language periphrases are trite as it is seen: ▲ He spoke as the father of the nation. Speech periphrases is understandable in a particular context, it is genuine. Euphemism: a word or phrase used to replace an unpleasant word or expression by a more acceptable one. ▲ golden-ager – an elderly person. Dysphemism is quite opposite to euphemism. ▲ nipper – a young child. Euphemisms groups: 1) religious 2) moral 3) medical 4) parliamentary.

Date: 2014-12-29; view: 3150